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Forgetting about the mass killings, every day in the US over 20 people are killed with guns. Dangerous guns and dangerous gun owners need to be eliminated from society. We should not just focus on the mass killings.

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I believe the statistics you refer to compare the numbers of murders committed with hammers, blunt instruments, etc. with the number of murders committed with the so call "assault" weapons that they want to ban right now. Those statistics show that the current push to ban "assault" weapons is just the first step in a continuing push to ban more and more guns.

It's clear that for many, if not most, of the gun control advocates it is absolutely not about preventing the mass shootings like those at Newtown or Aurora. Otherwise we might be having a serious discussion about steps that actually might make a difference rather than wasting time arguing about whether rifles that looks like a military weapon or magazines with a capacity of more than 10 rounds is the real cause of the problem. Despite all the statements to the contrary, it really is all about neutering the 2nd Amendment and taking the away the right of Americans to own guns.

When the next mass shooting happens with someone using a semi-automatic pistol with several 10 round magazines guess what they will be wanting to ban?

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So you agree with Hitler, etc. What will you do when gov't desides to come after you -???Guns are not the problem, same as knife's, bats, etc. It is the mental problem of those who use them to destroy other innocent folks.

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FBI data compiled by CBS. I have admittedly not bothered to peruse the FBI stats to this depth. I agree with Henry though - if one is going to make the case to deal with mass gun shoots like Newtown, then, there is a moral case to seek a ban on all guns. Chicago more than 500 homicide shootings last year with handguns.... it matters not whether it's one or two lives or twenty lives.

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Each day 25 americans die because of the actions of illegal aliens, mostly vehicle-related, mostly alcohol-related.
We have 270,000,000 guns in the US, mostly kept legally & safely.

We have fewer than 21,000,000 illegals, though, with no rules or restrictions. And they are easy to locate and recognize. And it is unconstitutional that they are here.
Where should we direct our law-enforcement & safety considerations, Mr. Schmid?

It is difficult to calculate how many lives are saved, how many adults and children are protected each day, how many serious threats averted, by the presence, availability or use of firearms, because our media do not report such good news. Or, as they would see it, such bad news.
But it is common knowledge anyway that the number is rather large.

Also, my town has a population of about 45,000. It is a suburb, one town removed from a major city. The number of persons holding “Concealed Carry” permits has not been publicized, but for purposes of this example, let’s say it is 2,300, or about five per cent.

I don’t know who has such licenses, nor would there be a way to identify which of them actually owns a gun, not to mention which resident might have one on his person at any time.

It is not really any of my business, but I do hope a few folks are armed; like anyplace, a resident here or there might be a jerk, but most are pretty nice, levelheaded folks.

So, my family and I don’t worry that there might be five gun owners in the nearest hundred homes.

There is something, though, that has us wondering:

In every mass killing we’ve heard of, the guy doing the killing – whether he has a knife or a gun, or a bomb, or a cobblestone, or a can of gasoline, or a truck – that guy is mentally unbalanced.
Rational people do not do such things.

And in any locality we might find several who have mental or emotional afflictions that could possibly render them unstable and even dangerous to themselves and/or to others.

My point is this: No matter how many guns are in a community, they are perfectly harmless unless an unstable person who wants to do harm gets connected with one of them.

I do not really care which law-abiding citizen has a gun or where it is.
I do care, though, who in the community may present a threat to my family or to others, using a gun or by any other means.

So why aren’t our gallant representatives, Progressive lobbyists, self-appointed social custodians and the ACLU insisting on publication of the names, addresses and photographs of everyone who has undergone any psychiatric treatment, psychological therapies or mental or emotional evaluations - instead of the names and addresses of law-abiding, non-threatening citizens?

Certainly those who only want to prevent tragedy will agree to forego claims of personal privacy, and to broadcast information that alerts a community to genuinely potential threats to public safety.

What’s that, you say? Only a small percentage of the mentally disabled present a threat?
Well, the percentage of privately-owned guns that present a threat is miniscule; much smaller, it seems, than the percentage of our mentally troubled neighbors who might become dangerous.

Thinking on the subject, I’d rather have a thousand concealed guns in my community than a half dozen covert, fragile psychopaths.

Our friends on the far Left claim a humanitarian focus on safety in the community, with no regard to personal responsibility or constitutional rights.

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Henry, it is also true that about the same number of people are killed by drunk drivers every year. Are we going to ban automobiles and demand mass transit? Or are we going back to prohibition? If you own a gun, statistically you have a lesser chance of having a fatality in your family from that weapon than you do of having a drowning if you own a residential pool.

Hey, 90% of all gun violence is committed by men. and of the 10% of shootings which happen by women, a huge portion are self-defense against stalkers or other attackers. So...perhaps the answer is banning testosterone?

Here's another tidbit for you 2.3 million times a year, a legally armed civilian prevents a crime using their weapon. 80% of the time, all they do is either brandish the weapon or fire a warning shot into the air and the perp flees. Only 20% of the time do they actually take aim and pull the trigger. You figure out how many times a day that is buddy.

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The problem with mandatory background checks for all gun sales it is absolutely unenforceable. Even if the government required a national registry of all guns and gun owners there is no way for the government to know where the guns really are on an on-going basis.

First, you have to assume that all current gun owners would voluntarily register their guns. Many, maybe a majority, would not and the probably is100% that criminals with guns would not register them. Then the government would have to positively track the movement of all the guns. The only way they could do that would be to physically inspect the guns at every gun owner's home or place of business on a regular basis. Not very likely to happen in this country since this is exactly the kind of government tyranny that the 2nd Amendment was designed to prevent.

A few suggestions:

1. If the government is going to continue to require any background checks they need to be held accountable for ensuring the necessary data is available to make those checks useful. It is pointless to have the checks if the data on criminal history and mental health problems is not available.

2. The government must be required to prosecute anyone that lies on the background check forms. To read that the federal government routinely ignores these violations is ridiculous.

3. I'm not familiar with the laws regarding the licensing of gun dealers, but it seems like many of the sellers setting up booths at gun shows or selling multiple guns on-line or via classified ads are actually running a business selling guns. It would seem appropriate to require that they be licensed in some way or at least required to conduct instant background checks and be provided a means to do so that is not cost prohibitive.

4. All licensed gun dealers should be required to provide services for instant background checks to facilitate the private sale and transfer of guns at a reasonable government controlled set fee.

5. Gun owners should be given information on how to use these background check services when selling their guns to a third party and encouraged to use those services to help prevent their guns from falling into the hands of people that should not have them. I believe that the vast majority of responsible gun owners would be willing to use those services if they were readily available at a reasonable cost. Especially if they were selling a weapon to someone they did not know well.

I'm sure there can be plenty of discussion about suggestion 3, but as a whole I think these represent common sense reasonable proposals that would allow responsible gun owners to help prevent guns from falling into the hands of criminals and the mentally unstable. This kind of approach gives people the ability and means to do the appropriate thing when selling a gun without establishing a mandate that is unenforceable in any case and would only serve to make criminals out of otherwise honest citizens.

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Not a problem, simply hold the registered gun owner responsible for any misuse of the firearm. If he sold it illegally he is still responsible, because he is legally the gun owner. If someone is killed, execute both the shooter and the illegal seller. I'm betting we wouldn't have to execute very many before sellers were within full compliance of the law.

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Your right RobertIt wouldn't take very many executions before gun sellers complied with the law. Wasn't that Stalin's philosophy?But the law would be a violation of the citizens rights under the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.I don't care to discuss the pre-amble or the reasoning, only the "right" which is clearly defined by the first two words. "The right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."Do yourself a favor, learn the meaning of the word "infringed" before you reply.

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stupid comment - It is the criminal, who will always find someone's legal gun. The rules do not affect criminals.Gun control is for the leftist who fail to enforce existing laws, Think = if someone had a legal gun anywhere these shooting occured, the situation would not happen. Everyone, who wants to protect themselves from idiots/driminal should have the right to defend themselves.Look at the horrible situtation at Norstroms, ==that would not have happened if there were legal guns in the hand of good citizens.

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I'm all for personal responsibility and following the law, but you might want to pass that message on to the present occupant of the White House and the Democrats in Congress.

Many Democrats and liberals don't appear to believe in holding people accountable for their actions. That's why they always default to more laws and more government action against the innocent in the hope of preventing a crime rather than going after the people that commit them.

Many of the same liberals that are yelling the loudest for gun control are the same people who are soft on crime and the criminals that commit them. How about stiff and mandatory minimum sentences for anyone who commits any type of crime with a gun? How about an automatic mandatory death penalty for anybody who kills someone with a gun?

Oh, I forgot, these are the same people who are against capital punishment.

The Obamacare mandate is another example. The right approach would have been for the government to provide tax credits or deductions to make health care insurance affordable for the majority of working people and subsidies or access to Medicare for those that still cannot afford insurance. Under that approach personal responsibility would mean that if someone is still not covered they better show up at the hospital with cash or they will not receive care.

But I can hear the outcry now: But that would be far too harsh! The Government needs to protect people from making bad decisions. We couldn't let a hospital turn someone away...

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Many Christians are pro-life regarding abortion yet do not object to the death penalty. Why? Because, unlike the unborn child, the adult was able to exercise their free will and they chose to take the life of another[others]. The child has no such opportunity, is blameless and thus, cannot forfeit their right to life.

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I would guess any FFL holder is selling firearms WITHOUT a background check has many other problems and will be sharing his sleep arrangements with a guy named Bubba soom. The gun shows I have attend I have noticed the licensed dealers using background checks on their sales. Its very easy with cell phones and the internet. And most try to discourage sales in the parking lot. Think about it you have on idea what your are getting or who is taking your money. Your along in a parking lot with $500 and he has a gun. I'm sure nothing could go wrong right?

Anyone and I mean anyone who buys a firearm without doing a background check is risking buying a weapon that has been stolen. Even it you get charged an transfer fee, it going to be worth it to know you new toy is clear. If your selling one the presses clears your name from owning the weapon. A nice thing if that gun would ever be used in a crime. If you can't afford the 20 or 30 bucks maybe you should try archery.

I sell firearms and do transfers for people for everyday. Yes we charge for our service, but your safer with your new gun.

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David - Agree completely. That's why I don't see expanding the background checks to include private sales as being a major issue. I can sort of see how some might have a problem with it if they are buying or selling with someone they know well, but like you said $20-$30 is not much to set the records straight. And if that good buddy turns out not to be a honest as you thought, this would help protect you.

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Silly, how many parent ""enable"" their children by not monitoring what their children are up to.That Mother, that was shot by her own son, KNEW he had serious problems, But, she was tooweak to do anything.

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You might take some time and peruse the statistics. Gang/drug related murders account for a whopping amount of the total of murders committed with a firearm. Those guns used are almost always not a legally purchased firearm. Additionally, suicides account for another good amount of the annual homicide with firearms.

While the Newtown's attract all of the attention, the real problem is in the bastions of democratic machine politics- major economically distressed urban areas. The 'Mayors Against Illegal Guns' have plenty to target right now with illegal guns in their cities. They have no interest in targeting those illegally obtained weapons. Will open up a huge can of worms. In Chicago, the number of gang members exceed that of law enforcement four to one, per the report I recently read. Worse, the amount of people even indicted much less tired and found guilty of their crimes in this demographic is next to nill. It's a low risk proposition for an inner city gang member or drug dealer to kill someone.

Since they won't tackle the real and largest problems, they'll target passing more restrictive laws and turn current law abiding citizens into criminals if they don't comply. Any Constitutional prohibitions against their actions aren't a consideration.

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When I want to rent or buy or drive a car, the license is evidence of my legal ability to do so.

When I want to buy a gun, they can see my license to carry, then there is no more reason to do another background check than there would be to make me go through the driver's test every time I wish to drive an automobile.

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Well, America, take a look around you to see the results. Since the 60s, the Left has charged a relentless campaign against everything that? made the US a great nation, and the Constitution that defends the principles of Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. There are barbarians outside the walls inside and out who want to destroy us and there is an enemy within working the fields amongst us. And Obama and his folowers will stop at nothing to get what they want unless we stop them.

The present administration and Legislature is 100% about government, and the People be damned. They are non-stop attacking individuals and fiends who demand an ever growing Federal government. This must stop.

A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed... What part of the US Constitution do you not understand? What is wrong with you people?

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Unfortunately, Obama is back for second term because the Republicans with less than inspiring choice for candidate and in their fixation on the social issues, gave him the election -- well, that an a bought media who fails to hold Obama accountable. Actually, the frustration caused by the last four years has helped bring crazies out of the woodwork.

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Hollywood get s free pass with the violent video games and violent movies and TV shows .They are the cause of the dumbing down and de -senseitizing of America youth.Jimma Carter emptied the mental institutions with the ACLU ,this is the result .

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REMEMBER, Hollywood is the land of "play-acting & anything goes" ==Not many even have much background on USA History. They just follow what everyone else is doing - sleeping with hundreds, children w/o marrige, curssing, horrible movies, women (also media women) dressing like fallen women, etc.. Politicians threating & screaming like 2 year olds, Folks threating to "kill" others who disagree.Yep, no wonder our children are confused... All they see is TRASH...

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The video games all by themselves wouldn't do anything but the society that has turned murder into a legal discussion has been a big help in not dissuading murder. Everybody should know the penalty for wantonly killing an innocent. My choice would be swift execution. As it stands, the penalty is ---------------------------. Who knows? So we have a bunch of kids playing video games with the prize given to he who rapes or kills the most, living in a world where parents are punished for disciplining them, schools are in fear of using non lawyer approved discipline, where murder has no fixed penalty and the media talks about the evils of inanimate objects not the cowardice of somebody using knife or gun or hammer.

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Always remember that the leftist/elite are the do as I SAY, not as I do.We have the weakest congress ever and a prez who wants to rule usby executive orders.... Losing freedom daily ! Note: Bloomie/NY mayor - ""decides" that folks should suffer by limits on pain killers in hospital, however, that rule DO NOT APPLY TO HIM.